Sorry, couldn't resist!
But yes, I did indeed have my first pantomime audition of the year at the weekend. I had applied for the job a few weeks back, when regular readers will know that I was having a horrible time of it.
Every actor has their down moments, and mine didn't look like it was going to shift anywhere quickly. I had sent off what felt like hundreds of job applications (in reality it was probably close to twenty due to the ridiculous nature of the business and trying to find any job that I might be able to squeeze myself into the casting bracket for), and I was getting nowhere.
On my casting website of choice, you are able to see when an employer that you have applied to has viewed your profile, and to see that the majority of them had looked at me and decided that my face didn't fit was making me feel worse.
And then I got a response! And it was more than a response, it was an audition offer! I couldn't believe it! They had been quite sneaky in their casting by not revealing their company name, but once I received their email, I could see that I had auditioned for them before, two years ago. They hadn't wanted me then, but apparently were very impressed with me and would like to see me again.
I then had to source my audition material. I'm not ashamed to say that I've been quite lazy. When the same companies hire me again and again, I feel like I don't need to keep audition pieces to hand/in my head. Big mistake. Never do that, always store stuff, I know it'll come to bite me in the arse soon enough!
Anyway, I had to prepare a monologue suitable for children and a song. I began to worry. I couldn't for the life of me remember what I had done for them before. I decided to take a risk and go with a monologue that I've used a couple of times before that has got me work, so I thought I'd be safe. My song choice was easy, I went with 'Someday' from The Wedding Singer. My monologue was in the form of an ugly sister character, and my song was a nice girl song, so I had two contrasting pieces. See, it's almost like I know what I'm doing!
Naturally I left it until audition week to really rehearse. I don't sing in the house if people are in, and my day off from normal person work coincided with my dad playing golf, so I annoyed the hell out of my neighbours by singing all afternoon! I didn't do a proper warm-up either so the first twenty minutes were dreadful! Sorry guys, but that's my revenge for keeping me awake with your singing when I was a child!!
Audition day rolled around, and I had been told that the audition would start at 9.30am. Ugh. I cast my mind back to the last time that I auditioned for the company and remembered that we had done a large group audition before doing our individual speeches and songs. I was happy with that set up, I did some vocal warm ups in the car on the way, and sang the hell out of my song, but didn't do too much as I knew that I would get warmed up working with other people.
I arrived at around 9.10am. I recognised the company owners car from my previous audition, but no-one else seemed to be around. I wasn't concerned, I'm the first person to arrive at auditions 90% of the time. Time ticked on, and no-one else turned up. Panic and nerves set in. Was that the right car? Was I in the right place? Had they changed the date and I hadn't got the email?
At 9.25 I decided to venture into the building. The door was open so I tentatively made my way inside, calling out a hopeful "Hello?" on my way. I walked in further and saw a man standing in the centre of the room, he stopped what he was doing and smiled at me. I heard a female voice say hello at me, I took a couple of steps into the room to see the face it had come from, and I realised that I had interrupted the poor boy's audition. Well done Natalie.
I took a seat outside the room while he carried on, and picked up the first magazine that I saw and pretended to read it while listening in. My heart went out to him. He was in a proper pickle, and I knew that I had been in his shoes a few times before. He got to the same point in his speech every time and forgot it in exactly the same place. Despite my thoughts that he had chosen a very strange option for a kids panto (I recognised it as being from A Midsummer Nights Dream), I was willing him on to do well. I didn't know who he was, I'll probably never see him again, but although actors are fiercely competitive when it comes to landing roles, I wasn't up against him, and I wanted him to do so well!
He gave me a slight smile as he left the room, and I wanted to apologise for barging in on his audition, but I thought the poor boy felt bad enough as it was, I just smiled and lowered my head to my mountain biking magazine.
The company owner, Laura, then came out and chatted to me before I did my audition. She asked what I had done since I last saw her, what I was up to now, and we had a chat about touring life and what the job would entail. It has been two and a bit years since my last proper tour, but what she was telling me brought it all back, and it felt like I was almost back behind the wheel of a transit van once more...
We moved into the audition room and I did my speech, which went quite well considering I only practised it out loud once on the car journey there. Then it was song time. I hadn't taken my music on CD so had to song unaccompanied, which was fine, as my backing track wasn't in the best key for my voice(!). Considering how nervous I get at singing auditions, I held it together and managed to not hit any bum notes, result!
I had to do one more little exercise which was to recite a nursery rhyme in the style of a comedy character, with an accent. Easy. Bashed that out in 30 seconds!
And that was it! Audition over. No group work, nothing. I didn't even see anyone else going in as I left. I was home again by 10.15 and had the day to myself. Lovely!
I had a fairly good day today, apart from someone I work with ticking me off slightly, but I ended my shift and noticed that I had a missed call and a voicemail message. I raced to hear what it was and... I got offered the job! Boom!
I called them back to accept the job, with mixed thoughts running around my head. I won't say what it is yet, but a few weeks ago I was asked if I was free for a certain opportunity that would be happening in December. This opportunity would be amazing, but it hasn't been confirmed yet.
So I might have a big decision to make. Do I go for a tour that I have been offered and would guarantee me money just in time for Christmas, or do I go with the opportunity that could possibly get me further ahead in the game? I know in my head what it is that I want to do, I just have to wait for people to get back to me and then make my choice.
A few weeks ago in my down phase I never thought that I would have to make a choice like this, but now that I do, I feel lucky that I'm kind of in demand! It seems that all of my tears and heartache might have been worth it after all.
Watch this space...
Nxxx
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